Bloomberg Works with Union for Freelancers’ Benefits

March 24, 2009

Having recently tried to screw cops out of their fat pensions and truckled to the rich, Mayor Bloomberg may be thinking it’s time to balance things out a little. In addition to some more truckling to the rich (“You can’t drive the biggest taxpayers out of the city”), the Mayor announced in a speech to the Economic Club of New York that he’s working with the Freelancers Union to get unemployment benefits for freelance workers. Together they’ll try “to develop a proposal that would create a federal unemployment benefit for independent workers,” the Mayor said, suggesting 1099ers might pay into a fund from which such benefits would be drawn, and which “would also offer freelancers some level of tax benefits.” He also wants to plug freelancers into the “incubator space” offices he devised last month.

Bloomberg also called on “Congress to adopt comprehensive immigration reform,” took credit for the “one-stop” licensing plan Christine Quinn announced in her State of the City speech, praised the building of an extension of the 7 Train to Hudson Yards, praised lower crime, etc. In other words, it was like a campaign speech, only given in front of a select and friendly crowd. But then, so was the crowd at the Christian Cultural Center in Canarsie, where he launched his campaign for a third term last weekend. No Joe the Plumber moments for this candidate, at least not yet.